Imagine Cup 2013: Team Lumos of South Korea Brings Music to Life

In the magical lore of the popular fantasy fiction series, Harry Potter, Lumos is a light-creation spell that allows wizards to illuminate the tip of their wand. Taking inspiration from this simple yet highly effective spell, Team Lumos of South Korea created a Windows 8 app that provides a new way of enjoying music through projection mapping techniques.

Team Lumos members GeunWook Lee, Nak-Kwon Choi, HwaJin Park and Jungmin Oh first got together through the Microsoft Student Partners programme. Spurred by their shared love of music, the students set out to work on a technology project that will enable users to create beautiful visual effects that match and enhance their listening experience.

“While we initially did not have a clear plan on how we were going to execute our idea, we knew we wanted to create something that is closely related to what we all love. With Lumos, anyone who enjoys music can now create their own media art with a little help from the app we developed that is based on projection mapping. We believe this app can make a difference to the music industry,” said Nak-Kwon.

While projection mapping techniques are already widely used by musicians to enhance their stage performances through synchronised visuals, Team Lumos has developed a way to enable anyone with a Windows 8 device to utilise the technology to personalise their listening experience in their own personal space.

When Team Lumos arrived in St Petersburg, Russia, to compete in the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in July, the team members got the chance to interact with other finalists and were inspired by the wealth of technology ideas from their peers.

In addition, the young South Koreans were greatly motivated by the encouraging reception their app received – and found that the Imagine Cup is serving as a stepping stone to bringing their ideas to life. Team Lumos was among the teams awarded the AFT (App Fast Track) Excellence Award.

“Imagine Cup is a platform like no other. You would not be able to find another event that enables students from all over the world to gather and talk about their dreams and aspirations. It was our first time being involved in such a huge project, and we were able to learn from our shared experiences and work together to overcome the obstacles we faced,” Nak-Kwon added.